After the GeneXus International Meeting, ARTech's Vice President Nicolas Jodal made a balance of the event and of the future perspectives. He emphasized the importance of the movement from GeneXus 9.0 to GeneXus Rocha, a bet on a radical change. Concerning this aspect, Jodal thinks risk and change must be a constant attitude and not a last resource.
What’s your assessment of the GeneXus International Meeting?
I think it was a very good event, I was very happy with it. It was the biggest so far. Personally, I always get very nervous before the event, worrying about if everything will be OK, if people will like it and especially if it will be useful. So when it’s over and we see the results, we see that we could actually accomplish what we wanted, and so we are much happier. We usually make a list of things we can improve for the next year, innovations and such. But it was very good. I think people found it useful.
What were the key objectives established for the Meeting?
There’s always a general objective, which is that people get updated in the application development world, that they can see the things that are being worked on and the new opportunities they can take. Particularly in this event where we were announcing a new version, GeneXus Rocha, and its first CTP that starts the beta testing process.
Since it is a very radical version, in the previous days we were a bit worried about how people would take it. It’s the usual feeling when you’re going to show something new, that you have just built, and you are not sure of whether it’s going to work. You plunge into the pool, will there be water or not? will people like it or not? The fact that people liked GeneXus Rocha a lot has stimulated us. Even in the days after the presentation, in the forums and stuff around the version, there was quite a lot of excitement.
Currently people are working with GeneXus 9.0, a very stable product that is working very well. Wasn't the fact of developing the Rocha version, which is totally new and radical, a very risky decision?
In IT, every now and then you have to take that decision of making a radical change. And it’s much better to do it on your own conditions than waiting for circumstances to make you. There are times that the change is determined by the fact that you have an old, obsolete product and you have to make an innovation. And it is very complicated to do it defensively. That is why, precisely, when we were in a good situation we said “well, this is the time to take a risk". Taking a risk when you are being chased is very hard, that’s why we decided to do it now.
And are you happy with the welcome Rocha had?
Yes. Actually, this is a process that will take over a year, this is just the start. But we’re very happy with the initial reception. From now on we’ll have to face trials approximately every month, month and a half. The Meeting was the first of GeneXus Rocha meeting with the community. Until the event we had shown it but nobody had taken it home. It’s the first time we’re telling people “here, take it and use it". It’s in a usable state, at least in part.
Two other highlights of the Meeting were the presentation of the GeneXus book and the Collaborative Projects.
The presentation of the book was great. We’d always wanted to make a book and it had been a big internal effort because there were so many other things we were doing. But Prof. Marquez Lisboa came and offered his help and he made an excellent book in a very short time.
Another interesting thing was the Collaborative Projects. It's interesting how the GeneXus community has given another step, has gone to a more sophisticated level, through the collaboration between different members and for me that was great. It was a surprise to be able to see concrete examples; there’s something that is being worked on by six people in three or four countries in the world, who have never seen each other’s faces and who meet on the day of the event. These projects make the community stronger and capable of further accomplishments.
But there were other additional innovations as regards previous events…
Yes. The Technology Cafés were an innovation; we wanted to know if people liked the concept. We want to improve it for next year, but in general terms it worked. Another thing that worked was the online radio, broadcasting in the afternoon. We were very concerned about the innovations we were offering but they worked so now we need to go on and improve them for next year.
Another important point for us as far technical topics are concerned was the GeneXus Patterns topic. We launched it two events ago; the first time we launched it people were just beginning to understand what it was about. Last year the reception was a bit better and this year it was great. So, one of the important points of the Meeting was the consolidation of the idea of patterns as a productivity enhancing mechanism.
What will be the topics for discussion at the next GeneXus International Meeting?
For next year I guess we’ll be discussing basically the Rocha version topic, and the new user interfaces topic. Microsoft is launching what is called Windows Presentation Foundation, so that will bring a lot of discussion. There’s also the SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) topic, which is getting stronger all the time.
What do you see GeneXus positioning right now?
I think we have a chance like never before. The software industry has an enormous need to rebuild its applications, mainly by migrating them to web. In this scenario we are doing fine. We are getting almost all our clients to make applications very quickly and I think that will increase the opportunities of the people who work with GeneXus, which is what matters to us. In particular, for software houses to be able to sell their products better, taking advantage of their large applications at the technological edge. That’s where the opportunity is and I think we’re getting to it, I think this is the time to get that.
Even by assuming certain risks…
That’s part of the software industry: there are times when you need to make changes. And since you’ve got to make them, it is better to have the freedom to choose the time and not let circumstances decide it. You have to keep that in mind and at a certain point you have to take the plunge.